Newsletter of
The Maryland State Archives
Vol. 15, No. 17
September 10, 2001
www.mdsa.net

Page 2
The Archivists' Bulldog
GRAND JURY REPORTS: BALTIMORE CITY (Part I) 
by Pat Melville 

Printed copies of Baltimore City (Grand Jury Reports), filed with the Criminal Court, exist for the years 1925-1964 at the State Archives in series C2790. The documents contain the usual reports on criminal activity, conditions in public facilities, and special investigations. 

In Baltimore City, each grand jury sat for a term of four months, and during that time considered hundreds of criminal charges. A 1944 report contained the remark: "As in times past, we had the usual 'Three Musketeers' that keep the law enforcing agencies busy - liquor, gambling and vice." 

Sometimes the jurors expressed opinions on the imposition of punishments for crimes that now seem unduly harsh and unforgiving. In 1926, the grand jury viewed prisons not as places of reform, but as institutions for "the rigid punishment of those who violate willfully and forcefully the personal or property rights of another." The prisons provided an environment ideal for learning new criminal behavior. "We do not capture a wolf, or other predatory animal, give it a comfortable home for a year or so, and then turn it loose to re-enact its former depredations. We make the public safe either by putting to death, or incarcerate it permanently." Such drastic measures were not advocated for all offenders. In 1935, a grand jury committee recommended using the whipping post for some unnamed minor offenses. 

The grand juries visited the city jail, state prisons, mental hospitals, and juvenile facilities located in the city and surrounding counties. Any institution, public or private, was subject to investigation as long as city residents were committed there at public expense. Inspection reports in 1925, for example, included the House of Correction, Maryland Penitentiary, St. Mary's Industrial School, City Jail 

Maryland School for Boys, Industrial Home for Colored Girls, Maryland School for Girls, Bay View Asylum, Maryland House of Reformation for Colored Boys, House of Good Shepherd, Springfield State Hospital, Spring Grove Hospital, Mount Hope Retreat, Crownsville State Hospital, Melvale School for Colored Girls, and Montrose School for Girls. The longest trip regularly undertaken was the one to the House of Reformation for Colored Boys located in Cheltenham in Prince George's County. Occasionally a committee of jurors would travel to the State Penal Farm in Hagerstown, that opened in 1942. 

During World War II, some of the trips outside the city ceased because of gasoline rationing and shortage of available vehicles. The court tried to tell the grand jury that it had no legal jurisdiction over institutions in the counties and that past inspections were permitted only as a matter of courtesy by the administrators. The jurors felt obligated to visit any facility where substantial numbers of city citizens were incarcerated or committed at public expense. The jurors prevailed and the inspections
continued. 

Most inspection reports contained satisfactory remarks about the institutions. Even when problems were outlined, the jurors almost always commended the personnel for doing the best job possible under the circumstances. But, as one grand jury foreman remarked, the more interesting reports described deficiencies. The reform school in Cheltenham was the one facility that fit the opposite pattern of having persistent problems [a subject to be considered in a subsequent article]. 

In 1938, a grand jury report described the locking system at the city jail where all cell doors had to be individually locked and unlocked by a tier guard. With four sections of cells, each with five tiers, locking or unlocking doors involved sixty-six steps in each section. The potential for disaster in the event of an emergency, such as a fire, was deemed 

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GRAND JURY REPORTS
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unacceptable. The jury recommended the installation of a new locking system. 

The committee on exits in public buildings factored fire hazards into investigations.  In 1927, it criticized the enforcement of laws regarding fire hazards in places of public assembly, such as theaters. The fire department conducted inspections, but building inspectors were responsible for getting the conditions corrected. Sometimes months elapsed between the discovery of a problem and its correction or elimination especially when owners appealed through the courts. Some problems persisted despite the imposition of fines and penalties. The jurors cited one example of the practice of emptying oil and gasoline into Jones Falls, that in 1926 had caused a fire under the fallsway that spread from Monument Street to the outlet of the falls, blowing manhole covers in the air and engulfing a theater in flames. 

On the morning of July 4, 1944, the first Oriole Park burned to the ground. Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin offered the baseball team the use of Municipal Stadium. The grand jury committee on nuisances and sanitation expressed concern about fans setting fires in the seating areas of the stadium. The fire board and park board
could not agree on who bore responsibility. The committee pointed out that the stadium was city owned and the Orioles were paying rent to the city. Thereafter, the fire department was present at all baseball games. 

Grand juries throughout the state often lamented the lack of significant impact of their investigations and recommendations. In 1937,foreman Robert E. Vining offered a commentary worth repeating. 

It is precedential that as Grand Jury terms near conclusion the Foreman prepared a report detailing the work of the Grand Inquest 

during its tenure of office. In the fulfillment of this tradition, it is easy to attain, unwittingly, new heights of absurdity, because at best Grand Jurors have but a measurable degree of common sense. For a Foreman, while drafting his section of the term report, to feel that while so doing he is then and there bestowed with  new gained wisdom is nonsense of the first degree. No Grand Jury is equipped mentally to cope with or pontificate upon the contemporary problems represented by the parade of personalities which passes before it throughout the four months covered by this service of citizenship. But surely Grand Jurors can at least offer some crumbs of observation from the cake of human, emotional, and criminal conflict which should prove to be edible sustenance for tomorrow's careful analysis by experts.
RECORD TRANSFERS 

DISTRICT COURT 12,  AL 
    (Civil Docket) 1992-1995 [MSA T1089] 
    (Natural Resources Docket) 1991-1995 [MSA T3304] 

DISTRICT COURT 12, GA 
    (Civil Docket) 1992-1996 [MSA T1092] 
    (Natural Resources Docket) 1991-1996 [MSA T3307] 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 
    (Committee File) 1975-1976 [MSA T292] 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HOUSE OF DELEGATES 
    (Bill and Resolution File) 2000 [MSA T290] 
    (Journal and Roll Calls) 2000 [MSA T291] 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY, SENATE 
    (Journal and Roll Calls) 2000 [MSA T294] 
    (Vetoed Bills) 1999-2000 [MSA T1763] 

GOVERNOR 
    (General File) 1994-2000 [MSA T2685] 
    (Legislation File) 1998-2000 [MSA T1243]